Curse this devil-game! I really don't see why I can't yank myself
away from PSO. Oh. Wait. That's right. It has Phantasy Star in the title. Mystery solved. Now on
with the column! Don't forget to send questions for CN tomorrow!

On PSO, can you hire NPCs in the town, to travel with you and help out (like
on Diablo 2) or is strictly you and your buddies?

Also, are there teleporters (or something like that) to take you to the
different zones, or do you have to walk from the town to where you wanna be
every time? (Again, like the teleporters on Diablo 2)

Oh yeah and lastly, when you get a level up, do all of your stats just go up
according to what class you are, or do you get to choose how points are
distributed to customize your character? And do you just learn magic and
techniques at certain levels, or do you get to pick which ones you learn?
(hahaha, maybe i should have just asked "is this game like diablo 2?" ^_^)

Pimp-BOT 9k

Googleshng:As yes, the great question of just how
much PSO is like Diablo 2. First off, you can't go around hiring mercenaries in town,
largely because you're too busy being one yourself. Like in PS4, you are, technically,
a bounty hunter in addtion to whatever else you are, so, when you aren't out advancing
the main plot of the game, you can loiter around the hunter's guild and take odd jobs for
some quick cash and experience. These little jobs have their own little plotlines, some
of which foreshadow a lot of the stuff in the game, and in several of them, an NPC will
take along with you, usually a client wanting a bodyguard, or some added muscle to help
you out. In theory, NPCs like this might join your party in the main storyline too, which
I've personally been sluggishly advancing. Anyway though, even if you have no friends,
you will occassionally have a partner.

Yes, there are teleporters to the various areas of the game once you reach them, and there's
even an item which acts like the scrolls of town portal in Diablo 2.

Going up levels is not like Diablo 2. When you get enough EXP, you go up a level, and your
stats increase depending on what you are. the higher your stats, the more equipment and
spells you can use. However, in the spirit of customization, each character has a little
robotic companion that you can feed common items to, making it grow in different ways,
giving you bonuses to different stats, teaching it new attacks to use when it actually
feels like fighting, and making it look really cool.

Another way PSO is like Diablo 2 by the way is that you can only save when you quit the
game. This saves a lot of the headache involved in having multiple people playing at once,
but unlike Diablo 2, you can still reset your game if you, say, drop a great weapon to
pick up a healing item and have 3 giant praying mantises come up and kill you and you don't
want to face them to get it back.

Is it hip to be a Square?

Do you like Squaresoft or not? Do you think Square should make games
for the DC instead of the PS2 because of PS2's (just about) failure is
America?

Googleshng:Of course I like Square, or at least, Square's
games. You can't deny that Square is one of the best RPG developers in the world. The
problem as I see it though is that since everyone adores Square and buys their games no
matter what, lately they've been getting sloppy. Take Vagrant Story for example. That game
has some really great concepts, but the mechanics don't quite seem polished. If everyone
didn't love Square unconditionally, chances are they would have tweaked things a bit
before releasing the game so that, for example, fighting a boss didn't boil down to attacking
it for 5 points of damage for half an hour. If anyone other than Square made the game,
that sort of thing would make everyone complain. So, while I do like Square, when they
do something I don't like, I point it out. You know the saying, the squeaky wheel gets
the grease. Now, as for Square doing Dreamcast games, well, that WOULD boost the DC's
popularity through the roof, make a big pile of money for both Square and Sega, and generally
make the world a happier place. It's not going to happen though, because Square doesn't
like Sega. Probably because Sega is another one of the best RPG developers in the world.
So that leaves Square with the Gamecube, not too likely considering Square kicked Nintendo
in the teeth, the PSX2, which strikes me as looking pretty darn sickly right now, the
X-Box (Yeah RIGHT!), or making their own console, just for their own games, using terrabyte
discs and a processor that can show two times as many polys as an HDTV has pixels. You
know they're going to do it eventually, it's just a matter of time. 8)

More on PSO!

Yo!

Yeah, that's right: the fruitcake (that would be me) is back. ^_^ Hmm... you're not running away? How strange...

Anyway, I have a question (or a few questions, rather) about PSO: what about the techniques? I haven't heard anything about tech use yet, apart from the fact that there are techniques... so:
1: Are there as many techs as in, say PS2, or as few as in PS3?
2: Are the techs mostly the same as in the previous games, or are there a lot of new ones?
3: Since I love playing wizards, is the "force" class worth using? I've seen far too many games where magic turns virtually useless about halfway through the game... and games like PS4, where the best fighter ends up with the best magic, as well...
4: I've heard nothing at all about "skills" (as in PS4), so I'm assuming there aren't any of those in PSO... am I assumiong correctly?
5: Finally... does anyone know when PSO will be released in europe? All I hear is "2001"... and that isn't really much of an answer.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll be back to pester you again some other time... ^_^

/JL

Googleshng:OK, PSO's techniques. The character I'm
using has access I believe to the whole standard battery of techs. The three power levels
of the 3 main elemental damage spells, and healing, anti, rever, some stat boosting and
lowering spells, and Megid. My character is a Hunter. Therefore, I assume Force characters
have access to a while bunch of new ones, and I'll check on that as soon as I get a second
memory card. As for them becoming useless later on, I really don't see it. To my understanding,
the only weapon that can hit a bunch of monsters at once is the Really Big Sword™,
which is extremely slow, not to mention short ranged. Later techniques hit pretty wide
areas. There's also something to be said for having a ton of MP for healing and support
spells. Really, the classes in PSO are remarkably complimentary and balanced. Stuck as
I am with just one character, recently I've been in the situation of pulling out my Really
Big Sword™, hacking down a swarm of fast short ranged monsters, then switching to
my cheesy little handgun to pick off something I don't want to get close to, all the while
healing and being prepared to cast my one big MP sucking spell if things get scary. Since
you can't pause it, it would REALLY help to have someone else handling the firearms and
magic, and for that matter having another person around period would prevent little things
like being mobbed and slowly killed by 8 baby chicks. As for the european release date,
I would assume it will be either simultanious with the US launch, or really soon after.
I know for a fact that the whole game has already been translated into all five languages,
because even in the Japanese version, you can pick any of them. I'll look into that more
though.

More on awards

LOD as a runner up for worst let down of the year? aw come on, i thought you liked that
game, you spnet like 2 months writing posts about it. The battle system was very
innovative plus the story had nice twists, good characters too. back me up on this one.
or tell me why it the "worst let down of the year"?
-ade-

Googleshng:OK, once again I see I must remind everyone
that those awards were compiled by votes from the entire RPGamer staff, and Sony DID hype
LoD up as a technically amazing fresh new game, then released a dated FF7 clone. As for
my opinion of LoD, like I said when it happened, the only thing LoD REALLY had going for
it was very very good timing. It was released at a time when there weren't any other pure
RPGs to compete with. At that, like you said, it took me two months or so to finish. When
I REALLY like a game, I get through it in just a week or two, unless it's really long
and/or hard. When you get down to the cold hard facts of the matter though, LoD is an FF7
clone released in 2000. The engine is dated, the map screen characters are attrocious,
more importantly the plot is terrible. A collection of one dimensional stereotypes walking
through the most cliché ridden story ever made, with a main villain who's nothing
more than Sephiroth with a stupid name. On top of that, the dialog is so clumsy and the
clichés are so pronounced, you'd have to be really fresh to RPGs not to see every
single plot "twist" coming from miles away. Full of holes too. "Dragoons are humans who use
dragons to fight non-humans." Then a good chunk of the game is spent having your dragoons, a couple
of which aren't humans, kill dragons for no REAL clearly defined reason. Granted, it has a
few good points. The battle system, the style of all the ancient stuff (Dragons, Virage,
the tree), and that darn impressive looking water. Granted, it's fairly fun. When you
get right down to it though, LoD is by far the most mediocre game of the year.

Coverage questions

Hey Gurgle...

I'm a happy Dreamcaster who loved Shenmue.

Now that my intro is over, I have a few questions and a comment:

Q: There was a lot of crap to collect in Shenmue that had no use. Therefore, should I assume it is a good idea to keep my VMU file for possible compatability with Shenmue 2?

Q: I'm surprised that RPGamer isn't covering Black and White. This is the ONLY PC game I plan to buy in the next while. What have you got to say about that one? Do you even care?

Q: My rommate is an AC geek, and we are both getting serious about Anarchy Online. Will RPGamer ever cover MMORPGs?

C: You have been raving about SoA for a while now, so after I finished FF9, I nabbed it from my EB (though the first one I got was defective). After about 10 hours (I just had an hour long, grueling battle with the Lynx), I can safely say this game is sweet! AND, I thought VP was sweet too, though not worth buying. Anyway, the point is, I officially trust your taste in games. 8?)

Keep your opinions coming!

Thanks,
RockyDil

Googleshng:OK, I can almost guarrentee you transfer your character
over to Shenmue 2 with all your EXP and stuff, so yeah, hold onto that file. RPGamer doesn't
cover Black and White because it isn't an RPG, but it does look pretty interesting. Kinda
like how Populous SHOULD have been. As for covering online RPGs, that's a matter of eternal
debate around here. I personally have always been against it, simply because, well, most
of what we do just wouldn't apply. You can't write walkthroughs of them. With our policy
of not writing reviews until we've actually finished the game, we can't do that either.
There's no way CC or I could answer questions on them since they take too much time. All
we'd be able to do is gather news and screens on them, and at that, the things come out
of the woodwork. We'll cover FF11 of course though. Oh, and as for SoA, glad you like
it. Everyone seems to.

The Last Laugh:

This time, I'm NOT going to forget about this!

Ever notice how when CC stopped sending stuff like this in, Rad started, then after he
stopped Guifá did, then after him came LightSoul here? Wonder if one day they'll
all wake up at once and clutter this little area up.

Anyway... this column is a tad... ranty. Odd how tha worked out. Hope you enjoyed it
though. Someone pointed out that AOL doesn't get along with the DC, so I suppose I should
revise my PSO facts wallpaper. I know it works with Earthlink
though. Now, don't forget, CN will be here one last time tomorrow. Make sure to send in
good stuff.